The present invention generally relates to a conveyor that is particularly useful in a sanitary environment. More specifically, the present invention relates to a locking assembly that can be used to maintain the desired spacing between drive sprockets used to drive a continuous conveyor belt.
Presently, in food processing conveyor applications, conveyors must be manufactured such that the conveyor belt can be removed and the entire conveyor frame assembly sanitized. Following sanitation, the conveyor belt must be reinstalled for continued operation. Numerous guidelines exist to regulate the type of conveyor assembly that be used in a sanitary environment, such as in a food processing facility. Typically, these guidelines require that the conveyor frame assembly must be capable of being disassembled and sanitized. Since the conveyor frame assembly must be sanitized on a regular basis, the conveyor assembly must be capable of being quickly disassembled to allow complete cleaning. Preferably, the disassembly should require no tools.
The food processing guidelines for conveyors also require that the conveyors not include any areas that collect water after the conveyor has been washed down. If the conveyor includes areas that collect water, bacteria can form in the wet areas, which is unacceptable in a sanitary environment. Therefore, the conveyors used in the food processing industry must be sealed and prevent water from pooling after the conveyor assembly has been washed down.
In many uses of sanitary conveyors, the conveyor belt is a plastic chain conveyor belt that is driven by a series of drive sprockets positioned near one end of the conveyor assembly. Each of the drive sprockets is positioned along a drive shaft, which is coupled to a drive motor. Since the conveyor assembly is used in a sanitary environment, the drive sprockets must be easily movable along the length of the drive shaft such that during cleaning, the areas of the drive shaft under the drive sprockets can be cleaned. Presently, each of the drive sprockets are freely movable along the longitudinal length of the drive shaft such that when the continuous conveyor belt is removed, the drive sprockets can be slid longitudinally and the portion of the drive shaft positioned beneath the drive sprocket can be easily cleaned.
Although such a configuration allows for easy cleaning of the drive shaft, the freely movable drive sprockets present alignment problems when the conveyor belt is replaced for normal usage after cleaning. Specifically, each of the drive sprockets must be separately aligned with the driving gaps in the plastic chain conveyor belt, which often proves to be tedious and time-consuming.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a locking assembly that provides the desired spacing between the drive sprockets yet can be easily removed for cleaning. Further, it is desirable to provide a locking assembly that fixes the distance between the drive sprockets while allowing the plurality of drive sprockets to slide longitudinally along the drive shaft.